Young Spectator’s Guide

Since 2016, the Festival d'Avignon publishes a young spectator's guide for children and teenagers from 7 to 15 years old which presents all the shows, films, readings and projects for young people.

Plastic Art Workshop - Landscapes paintings © Festival d'Avignon

It introduces the Festival d'Avignon and its history through games and activities and enables them to learn about the world of theatre and its vocabulary. It is produced by the young people of the territory during the spring (act of participation during a class or association project) and is presented to the participating groups after printing (valorisation and attachment to the project). The Festival d'Avignon works in collaboration with schools, secondary, high schools and associations in Avignon and its surroundings. The guide is distributed for free to young festival-goers in July at all the Festival venues.

This year, 17 workshops were conducted. Numerous productions were produced, but not all of them could be included in the young spectator's guide of the 76th edition of the Festival d'Avignon. Discover 4 of these workshops below. You can find all the workshops in the Young Audience Guide 2022.

Browse the program to discover the events of the 76th edition of the Festival dedicated to our young spectators.

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Field recording workshop

Field recording

Nathan Denis and Lucas Dubbeldmann from the association Volt, par l'image et le son in Avignon introduced the children of the association Couleurs espoir in Le Pontet to field recording. It involves recording natural or human sounds. After listing the different sounds evoked by the forest and the grandmother's house in Little Red Riding Hood, they practised audio recording in the field. Accompanied by technicians, they imagined two soundscapes for each place: a hostile and a friendly one.

The grandmother's house

Mother-Grand returns to her beloved home. As soon as she crosses the threshold, a warm atmosphere surrounds her: the fireplace crackles quietly, the little clock ticks and her favourite jazz music plays on her phonograph. As she sways in her chair, the wolf comes knocking at her door; he brings a particularly frightening atmosphere.

The forest

Little Red Riding Hood is walking through a pleasant forest. She walks back and forth along the path, approaches the water source to dip her hand in it while hearing the sound of birds singing and the wind whispering in the leaves. Suddenly, the weather changes and the rain approaches! And at the same time, she hears a growl near her. She runs. Has she lost the monster? The footsteps are getting closer and closer... Was it really the wolf so close to her?

Discovering flavours workshop

In the show Gretel, Hansel and the others, flavours have disappeared and the whole population is fed on capsules. How sad it is that there is no such thing as flavour! The 17 pupils of CM1/CM2 from the école Louis Gros in Avignon explored the theme of salt and sugar and had the chance to attend a cooking class with the chef Patrice Leroy, master chef of France and teacher at the hotel school in Avignon. On the programme: tasting the varieties of salt and sugar, discovering the origins of the products and finally, food testing! After that, they learned professional gestures and concocted sweet and savoury puff pastries.

Art workshops

The spicy house

This art workshop proposes to work around the themes of the show Gretel, Hansel and the others, the house, the path and the forest, through their contrasts. Using clay, beads and light, each participant makes a light and dark model.

Art workshops echoing the show Gretel, Hansel and the others will be offered from 7 to 12 July from 2 to 5 pm.
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Landscape paintings

Under the watchful eye of Sylvette Ardoino, a visual arts instructor at the École supérieure d'art d'Avignon, the 22 CE2/CM1 children from école les Grands-Cyprès in Avignon took part in a workshop to create landscape paintings. This workshop focused on the creation of landscape paintings in clay and plants, based on the theme of the forest and the paths that the little girl crosses in Little Red Riding Hood.

Come and create your own landscape painting during one of the echoing young artists' workshops offered from 13 to 18 July from 2 to 5 pm.
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The great crossing

The 25 children of CM2 from the école Saint-Ruf in Avignon took part in a workshop with Sylvette Ardoino, a visual arts teacher at the Ecole supérieure d'art d'Avignon. They were inspired by the adventures of the Soldier and the Ballerina to work a paper scenography. When the ballerina flies through the air, she meets many people, including a very capricious cloud. When the soldier falls into the sewers, he meets a paper boat... Based on these twists and turns, the students made a new set made of plaster strips as well as boats soaked in ink...

Come and imagine your own Great Crossing during one of the young visual artists' workshops offered from 20 to 26 July from 2pm to 5pm.
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Previous years' guides